An email from Dan Legere in Greenville tells me that the East Outlet will be open to catch-and-release flyfishing year-round starting in 2008, from the dam to the Beach Pool. As I look out the window today I don't foresee fishing the East Outlet in January, or February, or even March unless we get an unseasonable burst of warm weather. We got a foot of snow yesterday, on top of the few inches of the week before, and today the wind-chill index must be in the minuses. I could tie on the first fly in the comfort of my home, I suppose, but I think tying on the second fly, on the river, fingers icy and numb, would be a challenge. But I suppose there are those who will wade through the snowbanks to fish the river in winter. I doubt such an angler would have to compete for the good spots.

The East Outlet, from where the mighty Kennebec pours out of Moosehead down to Indian Pond, is a noble and often rewarding few miles of trout and salmon water. I have camped beside it many times and fished its pools, runs and riffles with varying degrees of success but always with a great deal of pleasure. The water is clear and cold, perfect for the brookies and landlocks that call it home. There's an abundance of insect life, and catching fish there is often a matter of matching the hatch, whether it's stones, caddis or Hendricksons. One day, in the river's first piece of fast water, between where the dam pool shoals out and the railroad bridge, I was getting skunked until I saw a flotilla of Hendricksons drifting by. I quickly tied one on and enjoyed a memorable hour of dryfly fishing. The river offers shallow riffles, turbulent pocket water, deep pools, and long glides, all of it fishy, and heavily forested banks unbroken by human habitation. Trout Boy and I floated the East Outlet with guide Chad Cray a couple of years ago on a crisp October day, and although in terms of fishing the river was, in the worlds of one guide, "in transition," the ride was spectacular.

During one trip some years ago I met an older gent who was camped in one of the choicest spots, the bluff above Beach Pool. He told me he was retired after a career in sales -- insurance, I seem to recall -- and ever since his wife passed away he spent his summers fishing. He came every year to the East Outlet, making camp and sleeping in the bed of his truck, and stayed for two weeks. When I came upon him he was cleaning his dinner, a 15-inch brook trout which he had caught in the run above the pool after working to him for an hour. "He kept rising in the same place," the man said, "showing me his dorsal fin. When you can see the dorsal fin you know he's taking emergers just under the surface." The man couldn't say how many times he cast to the fish, but persistence paid off. I think about that fellow when I revisit the East Outlet, and the lesson in patience he taught me, but I have not seen him in recent years.

One evening I went down to the wide flat water below Beach Pool. The main stem of the current hugs the south bank, and it's difficult to reach the prime fishing water without a drift boat unless the flow is low, which it was, allowing a half-dozen anglers to wade within casting range of the seam where the salmon liked to hang out. They were catching fish one after another. It was impossible for me to get a seat at that table, so I hung back and let my pheasant-tail drift slowly through the quiet water just behind the group. On the swing at the end of the drift the line went tight and a big salmon leaped out of the water. The anglers all turned to look as I fought and landed a bigger fish than I had seen any of them catch, and I felt pretty smug at having taken it right out of their back pockets.

My travels last summer caused me to miss three months of fishing (except for catching an asp in Baghdad) and I did not get to the East Outlet once. I can hardly wait to get back there -- but if you go in January, don't look for me.